Opinion: Devos correct to seek better course

Thursday

Sep 14, 2017 at 4:28 PMSep 14, 2017 at 4:28 PM

Justice, rather than expediency, should be the objective of handling sexual assault complaints on college campuses. But the Obama administration clearly settled for the latter in 2011 when it issued "guidance" advising college administrators that they risked the loss of federal funds if they did not confront the problem.

The focus was correct. Numerous cases from numerous campuses revealed a pattern in which administrations dealt with the problem by ignoring it and waiting for graduation day.

But the guidance created systems on campuses that mock the very notion of due process, swinging the process 180 degrees rather than to a system that honors rights of the accuser and the accused. Many courts in many places have awarded compensation to accused students who were expelled after administrative proceedings that, in the context of the actual justice system, can only be described as kangaroo courts.

Proponents of the system cringed when Education Secretary Betsy DeVos indicated that she would review the DOE's directive, fearing a rollback and a return to the bad old days.

Thursday, however, DeVos announced a sensible approach that should produce a better system. She credited the previous administration with forcing colleges to deal with the problem and said that the DOE would continue to press colleges to confront it.

But the DOE, she said, will conduct a review and receive public input on how to improve the system, which is a sound way to proceed. It is supported by the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Association of College Professors, an array of legal scholars at prominent law schools and many college administrators who are uncomfortable in their forced roles as judges and juries.

The current system too often swaps one injustice for another, replacing neglect of victims with an assumed guilt of the accused. DeVos is correct to seek a better course.